EU voices 'deep concern' over Khan Younis evacuation order
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The Government Media Office in Gaza calls the evacuation orders a "historic crime" that is exacerbating the already dire health crisis in Gaza.
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Displaced Palestinians leave an area of east Khan Younis after the Israeli army issued an evacuation order for parts of the city and Rafah. (AFP)
The European Union has expressed "deep concern" about Israeli evacuation orders from Khan Younis in Gaza, saying they are "creating a humanitarian crisis within a crisis."
The Government Media Office in Gaza earlier described "Israel's" forcing of the European Hospital in eastern Khan Younis to evacuate and cease operations as a "humanitarian crisis" that is exacerbating the already dire health crisis in the Strip, taking it to an unprecedented level, as it threatens the lives of thousands of patients and wounded individuals.
It accused "Israel" of committing a "historic crime" by issuing orders and maps that forced the European Hospital and hundreds of medical staff in eastern Khan Younis in the southern part of the Strip to evacuate and leave the hospital, placing it within the "red target zone."
Foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic noted that, in addition to affecting 250,000 people, the orders also threatened patients and workers in the European Hospital, forcing them to relocate.
Borrell and Lenarcic expressed that such a decision is "certain to worsen overcrowding and cause severe shortages in the already overwhelmed remaining hospitals at a time when access to emergency medical care is critical," adding that such orders are worsening the "catastrophic humanitarian situation, with nearly 1.9 million Gazans displaced within the Strip, as stated by UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag in the Security Council."
They emphasized that there are no facilities to house people, and humanitarian partners are struggling to fulfill the massive needs of the newly displaced, warning that evacuations need to conform to international law not to be considered "forcible transfers".
They reminded "Israel" of its obligation to ensure that displaced people may return to their homes or dwellings after the aggression ends.
Calling a ceasefire "all the more important now," they urged the displaced Palestinians to receive necessary service and care, claiming that the EU mobilized all crisis response tools needed.
They also recommended the fulfillment of the International Court of Justice's rulings dated January 26 and May 24, which are "legally binding".
Over 800 medical staff have been detained or killed
Meanwhile, the Government Media Office in Gaza condemned the ongoing Israeli crime, witnessed before the entire world, of forcing the European Hospital out of service without any intervention to stop this massacre.
The statement stressed that the lack of a strong and decisive stance from the international community against the invasion of hospitals, their shutdown, and targeting them with bombings and missiles has encouraged the Israeli occupation to pursue its crimes against the health sector, resulting in the execution of more than 500 medical staff and the detention of 310 others so far, in addition to crimes of targeting, raiding, and destroying medical facilities and centers.
In addition, most hospitals in the Gaza Strip are no longer operational because of the continuous aggression. In the Gaza Strip, 96% of people live in extreme food insecurity, as confirmed by the Palestine Red Crescent (PRCS) on the X platform.
In an interview for the BBC, PRCS Spokesperson Nebal Farsakh discussed the orders issued for the evacuation of 250,000 residents from Khan Younis.
PRCS: The ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip has put most hospitals out of service. 96% of the population of the Gaza Strip suffers from severe food insecurity.
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She said that "families who are being forced to move again are exhausted, traumatized, and suffering from ongoing fear, stress, and uncertainty."
The PRCS is moving medical and logistical equipment from Al-Quds Hospital and the PRCS’s warehouses in the Tell al-Hawa area to be used for medical points and emergency clinics in the Gaza and North Gaza governorates.
On Monday, Palestinians who had been forcefully displaced to the second-largest city in the Gaza Strip, Khan Younis, and those residing there were ordered to "evacuate", once again, as the Israeli occupation forces continue to show that nowhere in the Gaza Strip is safe.
The United Nations humanitarian agency reported on Wednesday that approximately nine out of every ten people in the Gaza Strip have experienced displacement at least once since the start of the Israeli aggression on Gaza.
